NaNo and the (hopefully) last word on goiters

Let me first state this; I am a writer, not a medical technician or associate or anything medically enhanced at all.  Cut me and I bleed words.  This whole hospital/thyroid drama has been more than I ever wanted to experience, but sometimes we get more than we bargained for.  Bob is recovering well, his neck sort of puffy, his voice returning. It's odd to think he has to take meds for the rest of his life, but lots of people do.  Nonetheless, I will be so relieved when this is but a faint memory, something we ponder with awe, as in how glad it has passed, and how so many things went right.

I look back on November the same way; I hit my NaNoWriMo 2011 goals, but also found a surprise; I couldn't write For God And Country and Penny Angel concurrently; heck, at the rate I'm going, FGAC will be completed in 2013.  That's a small joke, because as soon as it's feasibly possible, I will get that book sorted, maybe back to it tomorrow, depending on the husband.  NaNo 2011 will be recalled for how I relearned to write in a not-very-NaNo way, and a pesky goiter that didn't take over Cleveland.  It wanted to, but Bob had the last laugh.

So NaNo, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month...  Well, I have Penny Angel to show for it, half of FGAC.  NaNo was full of a new website, beta testing in September and October that led to November, so I was pretty revved up for writing.  Things went well for about four days, then I had my TMI meltdown at the doctor's office.  After that, November meant something else.

But that's part of the challenge, what I found during Camp NaNoWriMo over summer, which inadvertently prepped me for last month.  And probably for 2012; I want to focus on publishing, hopefully finding some peaceful coexistence between that and writing.  I love writing, don't get me wrong, but for the last two years I have done A LOT of it.  So much that a small sabbatical looks great, refreshing, necessary.  Not that I'm kicking NaNo to the curb, only that during the last few years manuscripts have multiplied like rabbits.  Time to sit back and take stock; what Bob's goiter did for me at the beginning of this year, and now at the end, it's gone, the landscape altered.

Now, I want to slip this in without sounding like a curmudgeon; the same thing is looming for NaNoWriMo.  Even with this being Chris Baty's last year on board as executive director of OLL, funding has been low.  It's always low, the eternal fate of most non-profits.  But in nearly mid-December, The Office of Letters and Light is looking at a real shortfall, over $200K behind where they need to be.  Not sure where that will leave Script Frenzy, Camp NaNoWriMo, NaNo and the Young Writer's Program in 2012.  I'd hate any of these cut or curtailed, but the bottom line is bleak; if money runs low, something's going to get the axe.  Time was squeezed for me last month, For God And Country suffered.  Priories get juggled.  A long-time NaNo supporter, I'm curious how this will fall out, how I felt earlier this year when Bob was told his poor breathing wouldn't kill him, a quality of life issue.  By October, the rules had changed; that goiter had to go.

He breathes so quietly now.  His blood pressure has lowered, no nosebleeds, and even with the risks of surgery, it is a tremendous blessing now that it's over.  Mostly over; follow-up appointments await, plus the pill he takes every day, for the rest of his life.  But overall, it was a good thing.  He wasn't looking forward to it AT ALL, a most unkind cut, but really, the best way to go.

Similarly, I wonder if OLL makes some unpleasant decisions, perhaps that too will be for the best, long-term. Hard to think long-term, because it's the here and now we experience.  I have to think long-term for publishing; currently it's a small, quiet animal, but I am SO GLAD I did it, and look forward to whatever 2012 holds.  Less writing, more formatting, a shift in direction.   Bob's long-term prognosis is easier breathing interspersed with doctor's visits to check hormone levels.  And NaNoWriMo?  That's a big question mark.  Chris Baty's departure is like that goiter's removal, like taking a vital organ from OLL, yet, it will survive.  Not without some pains and readjustments, but OLL as a whole isn't going to fall apart.  As Chris wrote, the next chapter of NaNoWriMo is for us Wrimos to write.  For thirteen years he did his part with immense cheer and aplomb.  I thank Chris Baty and all those at OLL from the bottom of my writerly soul; without them my authorial dreams wouldn't have flowered.  This blog wouldn't exist, all my stories locked in the deepest recesses of my brain.

Bob has quietly mentioned he hopes his thyroid doesn't grow back.  I roll my eyes when he says this; no, that goiter is gone, GONE!  As for NaNo...  It will return, perhaps limited, maybe no Camp next summer, maybe no Young Writer's Program.  I HOPE nothing will be tweaked for the worse, but time will tell the outcome.  Maybe, if some part is lost, it will only be temporary.  Or maybe not.  If the doctor hadn't removed all of Bob's thyroid, it could have grown back.  That would be the ONLY way (rolling my eyes again), but the whole kit'n'kaboodle was taken, so no more goiter.  The Office of Letters and Light will continue, perhaps in a new direction.  Definitely with a new executive director.  Whoever that is, I wish them the very best, and pledge my continued support for programs that excite the imagination, spark the creative juices, making dreams come true.  And then, well, then I'll do what comes naturally, pulling out yet another manuscript for inspection, add another song to a novel playlist.  Then sit my butt in the chair, crack my knuckles, get back to spinning yarns.  Now with this goiter outta the way, that's what it's all about.

And Bob, kids, tea, the hummingbirds, football, etc....